GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With 39 seconds left, Florida trailed Mississippi State by five points, with Bulldogs guard Robert Woodward II at the free-throw line for a one-and-one opportunity. Woodward could clinch the game. If the Gators had any chance — and the way they played the second half, they probably didn't — Woodward needed to miss. 

He did. 

The ball caromed toward the right block, where MSU guard Nick Weatherspoon hustled to the baseline and grabbed the must-have board, got fouled and sank two free throws to finish off the Gators, 78-71, before a disappointed Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center crowd that witnessed a disaster of a second half by the home team. 

That play was the period in microcosm. 

Sophomore forward Reggie Perry scored a game-high 27 points, but it was the totality with which Perry and his teammates utterly dismantled UF defensively in the second half that was the story of this one. Down 16 in the first, and 10 at intermission, the Bulldogs (13-7, 4-3) shredded the Gators (12-8, 4-3), losers of three straight, with 61-percent shooting after the break, while holding the home team to a dismal 29.6 percent over the final 20 minutes. 

"We were two different teams out there," UF grad-transfer Kerry Blackshear said. 

UF Team 1 shot 58 percent in the first half and dropped eight of 14 makes from the 3-point line. UF Team 2 came out of the locker room and converted just eight of 27 shots and went 0-for-7 from the 3-point line. 

Mississippi State, meanwhile, was unshaken in falling behind, 36-20, with less than six minutes to go in the first half. The Bulldogs hit their last five shots of the period to trail 45-35 at the break, then hit 14 of their first 20 field-goal tries in the second. Throw those last five makes of the first half into the mix and MSU went 19-for-25 over a nearly 20-minute span bridging the two periods.

That's 80 percent. That's astounding. 

Astoundingly good for one team, astoundingly bad for the other. 
 
"We said all the right stuff in our huddles throughout the duration of the second half," said UF freshman wing Scottie Lewis, who led the Gators with 17 points, all but four in the opening period. "You can talk the talk, but you have to walk the walk."

The lack of energy the Gators brought for the second half, UF coach Mike White said, put a pit in his stomach right about the time the Bulldogs went on a 9-0 run that tied the game with 11:17 to play. Backup guard Tyson Carter's 3-pointer over a brief look at a 1-3-1 zone gave MSU a 59-58 lead with 8:56 to go. The Bulldogs never trailed after that. 

"We're jogging back in transition and getting dunked on. They're scoring on us and we're walking the ball up court. We couldn't get our guys to find that same rhythm in transition offense; that same level of confidence. Our flow was completely different," a thoroughly frustrated and disappointed White said afterward. "Credit them. They ran it right down our throat on key possessions in the second half. Very poor transition defense gave them great looks at the rim. Reggie Perry was fantastic and they were dynamite in the second 20 minutes." 

And the Gators got blown up. 

Perry, the 6-foot-10, 250-pounder and former McDonald's All-American expected to be a first-round selection in the 2020 NBA Draft, finished nine of 14 from the floor, 3-for-3 from the 3-point line, hit six of seven free throws and grabbed eight rebounds. Woodward hit six of his seven shots, both his 3s and free throws, plus grabbed four boards. Point guard Nick Weatherspoon had 13 points, eight assists and just one turnover. Carter had 12 points off the bench and was perfect on his trio of 3-point tries. 

"So proud of our guys, the way they fought back from huge deficit," MSU coach Ben Howland said. "We did a much better job at both ends of the floor in the second half."

Florida, in turn, did a much worse job on both ends. Probably for a multitude of reasons, but one that stood out to its coach more than others. 

"We're a team that does not play extremely hard right now, but I've seen us do it," White said, pointing a finger at himself, as well, in adding that he had done a "poor job" with this team defensively. "That's what we've got to figure out."

That's extremely troubling — make that alarming — 20 games into the season. 

"Definitely a lack of focus, a lack of energy," said Blackshear, who had 13 points, seven rebounds and was smothered all night by MSU's big bodies on the block. "They beat us to hustle plays, all the 50-50 balls. They came out and had a different second half. They earned it."

The Gators earned what they got, also.